Carl MacDougall's books incude the novels The Lights Below (1993), Stone Over Water (1990) and The Casanova Papers (1997), which was shortlisted for both the McVitie and the Saltire awards. His story collections include Elvis is Dead (1986), The One Legged Tap Dancer and now, Someone Always Robs the Poor (2017). His books on literature and language include Scots: The Language of the People (2006) and Writing Scotland (2004) while he edited the highly successful anthology The Devil and the Giro (1989). he wrote and presented two television series for BBC 2. He is President of Scottish PEN.